Lo Vasquez; an all night ride towards the sea.

With my group of friends here in Santiago, we are all used to ride at night. We have been doing our night rides towards the San Cristobal for over a year so far, climbing the hill in pitch black nights, or sometimes with a beautiful full moon enlightening our way. Sometimes the clouds make a screen where city lights reflect and everything seems to be a mixture between yellow and orange, pretty much like if we were part of an old movie in sepia.

Once a year, we have the possibility to leave the city and take the road that leads to Valparaiso, a whole night ride on a closed road for cars, but open for pilgrims who head towards Lo Vasquez sanctuary. We are not pilgrims, but we are bicycle travelers and as many others we take the chance to ride on a normally forbidden road that gets open just this night in the year.

The taken road, Ruta 68. Normally  the transit is forbidden for bicycles and pedestrians.

Leaving Santiago.

This time we would be less than last year, but nonetheless we were all excited about it. We had been talking about Lo Vasquez for a while already and were checking who would join and who wouldn't be able to. Finally the group for this year would be Jota, Daniel, Nacho, Tom and I. Camila would also go, but she would leave way before our group on her own. As we were only men we would be pedalling fast, way faster than her. Camila knew this so she decided to depart a couple of hours before us so she could have advantage and eventually we would meet later in Lo Vasquez, the idea was to do a joint attack to the city of Valparaiso, the last part of the night ride.

Camila left around 9.00 pm on "La Flaca Comunista", the skinny communist. A red road bike with one gear that should take her at a good pace over the road and the tunnels ahead. At that time I was still on route towards my flat to pick up things I needed for the night. I arrived late from Talca and I had to rush it to my flat to get things in order before departing. At 9.30 I managed to get to the flat and waited for the rest to show up. Tom said he would be at a party and that we should call him around 11 pm to check his status and leave.

After a tea and a sandwich we left the flat around 11 pm. Night was a bit chilly, for some reason lately during the day, we have been having temperatures nearing the 30ºC but at night we get wind and chilly temperatures. We decided to check tire pressure at a nearby gas station and we encountered our first problem of the night. Jota's inner tube had a short valve which didn't fit the air valve of the machine at the gas station. We tried a couple of times but we were out of luck at that moment and Jota ended up loosing all the air inside his front wheel. Fortunately, he had a spare inner tube with a longer valve, so we decided to change inner tubes. We spent way less time changing the inner tube than the time we spent trying to get some air into the other inner tube, so finally we were ready to keep on again. It was already 11.30 and we still had to meet Tom at downtown.

Checking the air pressure at the gas station.

We met Tom and his friends around 00.30 am and finally started to pedal our way out of Santiago. This city is quite big but most of the way we were going down the hill. Santiago is right next to the Andes Mountains, so if you live on the west side of the city and you have to go to the east side, you will be going uphill, on the opposite if you move from east to west, you go downhill. The difference in altitude is not that much, but is noticeable when you pedal through the city, as you go way faster when you move from east to west.


Finally, we started to reach the border of the city, we were really anxious about leaving the city. Along the way we started to encounter other small groups of bikers that were heading towards Lo Vasquez. We were at the tail of the crowd though. The pilgrimage starts quite early, police close the road for cars around 4 pm, and from then on, cyclists and walkers start to swarm the 68 road to Lo Vasquez and Valparaiso. We were leaving Santiago at 1 am, so most of the people was already ahead from us.

Tom and Nacho at Plaza Italia.

 Ruta 68.

As soon as we entered the road 68, we started to push hard. All the time in the city, we would be stopped by some cars taking a turn in the next corner, or the traffic light giving us a red, or some pedestrian to avoid at last minute. As we left the city, cars started to disappear and traffic police started to show up. The anxiety raised, city lights went off and my mind clicked on reaching a previously agreed check point. I think the anxiety of the moment made us all go fast. Daniel was behind me all the time so I thought the rest was there too. We had a fast pace, I never went under 35 kms/h, which for my touring steel bike is quite a lot, the going down gradient helped to maintain the speed.

More bicycles started to show up along the way and the show finally started. It's amazing to see the road on the distance with endless small and red dots shining non stop. It's like a river of small lights that move slowly towards the sea. A river of cyclists and walkers and we were in the middle of it. Moving swiftly through the stream of people going towards the virgin Mary sanctuary. We were way faster than the average cyclist so we were advancing through the crowd doing maneuvers to avoid a crash that would cause a collapse in the stream of people.

The road towards Lo Vasquez and the stream of people and lights.

More and more people started to appear on the road as we were advancing through the multitude when we finally reached our first checkpoint, the first of two toll gates. Camila had sent a message that she was already in Lo Vasquez, she made a really good timing on the skinny communist and arrived quite early to the place. We still had all the way ahead of us.

At the toll gates.

Looking at what was ahead, pitch dark night.

Behind me Daniel showed up, we kept the same pace so we arrived almost at the same time to the toll gates. We waited some minutes till Jota and then Nacho showed up. This first toll gates were a checkpoint for most of the people, as there is light it's easy to meet up with the rest of your group and do a "technical stop" to eat, talk, drink something and decide which will be the next check point. We waited for Tom and his friends, but after waiting around 10 minutes we decided to call them. They were way behind us, more than we thought they would be!, so Tom said we should better split so we could continue at our own pace. We agreed on maybe meeting at Curacaví, a town in the middle of the way towards Lo Vasquez. We chilled a bit and talked to some other guys who were walking, not pedaling. They mentioned that their estimated arrival to the sanctuary would be around 3 pm at the other day (it was almost 2 am), but surely they would sleep at some point ahead. They were having fun though, they were drinking some "petrol" (pisco and coke) to maintain the spirit up while walking and they were also smoking some weed to ease leg pain.

Tunnel, Curacaví and Tunnel again.

We departed from the toll gates and reached the first of 2 tunnels. Going down the tunnel at speed and with lots of other cyclist around you is like playing mario kart. As we were pedaling faster than the average groups it was easy to imagine ourselves in some sort of video game race trying to avoid other players on the game. A real life race game, a  MMRLRPG (Massive Multiplayer Real Life Role Playing Game). The bad thing about the tunnel, is when you reach the exit of it. Inside, there is enough light to see everything around you, but, you are going at around 50 kms/h when the tunnel suddenly ends moving you to the pitch black night. The small red lights keep shining down the road in the distance and farther ahead, it is possible to see the lights of the small town of Curacaví. There is to maintain control of the bike in order not to crash with other cyclists as you go from light to darkness. If you crash here, it's quite likely you end up causing a multiple crash. So there is to adapt to the night again and avoid other cyclists that may go slower than you and some may go faster than you.

In the tunnel, playing some video game race.

We reached Curacaví and it was time to eat. As last year we stopped at the same bar but this time we were reluctant about eating or not. Nacho wanted a beer, Jota wanted just to eat some bread he already had, Daniel wanted to eat something big and I wanted some bread that I also had. We ended up going for 2 chorillanas (fries, eggs, meat, onion, sausage) and Jota and Nacho shared a beer. After our small mid night snack and after around a stop of 1 1/2 hour we started pedaling again. This time with full bellies.

Eatin 2 chorrillanas, a small snack at 4 am.

By this time, Camila was on a queue in Lo Vasquez, several other people had arrived and were waiting for the morning to come and the buses that would take them back to Santiago and other towns in the surrounding area. She said everything started to collapse as more and more people started to arrive to the place and that it was really cold down there. Surely it was, after you cross the second tunnel the weather changes. The influence of the sea can be noticed once you cross this second hill through the tunnel. We still had to cross this tunnel so it was time to move.

Entering the second tunnel.

The second tunnel is shorter than the first one but it's steeper, so you reach a higher speed than in the first one. Again same formation and time for some more of the MMRLRPG. Soon after the tunnel we reached the second toll gates and with this, we were close to the last climb and Lo Vasquez.

Lo Vasquez.

A bit before Lo Vasquez and when it wasn't dark anymore, the MMRLRPG got serious. I was advancing through the crowd with Jota, Daniel was closely behind us. We were pedaling machines just advancing at higher speed than the rest of the people there. Then Daniel took lead and kept pushing on. Out of the crowd, two other cyclists on road bikes sticked themselves to Daniel's tail. He noticed them and kept pushing even faster. As I noticed how these 2 lads were sticked to Daniel's tail I did the same to them, so we created a line of 4 cyclists advancing through the crowd. Jota noticed this and also joined us. Now we were 5 in a line, moving like a snake avoiding people. Splitting the formation and joining up again to keep on when obstacles (other cyclists) got on the way. When Daniel got tired, the road bikers kept on, thinking game was over slowed a bit the pace till they noticed that the three of us were still behind them. Game hadn't ended lads!. The game kept on. I'm not really sure how much time we spent doing this, but it lasted quite a lot, we would exchange the first position from time to time, we would split to avoid people, we would do the formation again and keep on. Despite the fact my knees where hurting at this point I kept on with the game. We were pushing fast to keep on the pace with the road bikers. None of us was using a road bikes, we all have steel frames and mountain bikes, so the bikes demanded good legs to keep the pace with the road bikers.

Finally we lost them at the last climb before the sanctuary and the game was over. Down there, in the sanctuary, a huge crowd could be seen from above. Somewhere there, Camila was on the line waiting for buses. We got to the place and waited for Nacho who we had lost while we were playing our race game. I called Camila and she said she was still waiting for the buses, she had been waiting in the line since 3 am and it was already 7 am. Our plan was still to keep on pushing towards Valparaiso, mainly, because you can't really quit at this point, if you already reached Lo Vasquez and have no business with the Virgin or the Christians, then it's proper to take the chance to keep pushing towards Valparaiso. We found Camila laying on the floor almost at the beginning of a long long long queue of people waiting for the buses. She was freezing but fine. After telling her our plan, she decided to team up with us and do the final push to Valparaiso. Most of the way would be going down, with some small climbs and a final steep down hill that would take us to the entrance of the port city. Nothing too bad considering what we had already pushed so far.

Valparaiso, Viña and the pirate bus.

 

Entrance of Valparaiso, Camila and her protection for the coldness. On the left the skinny communist.

The way to Valparaiso was smooth, we slowed a bit the pace, but we kept it constant. Formation got lost though. We all split and everybody followed his/her own pace. After around 2 more hours of pedaling we finally reached the city. Early in the morning, not even the local street market was fully open. It was around 9 am on Sunday when we arrived to the city. Now the hard part would come, we needed to find tickets to come back to Santiago by bus. Lots of cyclist keep on from Lo Vasquez til Valparaiso. So a swarm of bikers arrive to the bus terminal every year in search of a bus to get back to Santiago. Despite the fact we had arrived kind of early, the bus terminal was a disaster. Everything was full and in the windows of each bus company we would read "no more place for bikes", "no space available for bikes, only sits", "all sold out". Shit happens, and then you die they say. The only chance we got was to come back later in the day and try to get lucky or wait in a long queue in the hope of finding a bus available for the bikes and us. There were buses, but you had to talk directly with the bus assistant to secure a spot for the bike and then move to the office and buy a ticket. Too much for us after a whole night of exercise and no sleep. We went to find some sleep, we would return later to try our luck.

After sleeping getting ready to fight for a ticket towards Santiago.

After eating and sleeping at the flat of Jota's brother it was time to go back to the bus terminal again. Now it was 3 pm and the place should be less crowded and we should be able to find a bus to go back to Santiago. Sadly, we weren't lucky, same situation as in the morning. Long queues of bikers waiting for a spot in the bus for the bike and themselves. The same signs stating there was no more place available for the bikes and not much to do besides waiting for who knows how many hours. We put our options on the table; 1º stay there in the queues and wait for hours for a bus and a spot for the bikes, 2º move towards Viña del Mar in the hope the bus terminal would be less crowded, 3º call some of Camila's relatives who may or may not had available a pick up truck to go back to Santiago. Sometimes the easiest solution is the best, so we discarded the third option, we didn't want to wait so we decided to move towards Viña del Mar.

The road to Viña was a bit tricky as there is no bike path between the two cities and drivers in Valparaiso and Viña del Mar are animals. After many honks and some dangerous situations we managed to get to Viña and the bus terminal, only to find that there were no tickets at all for bikers!. Nothing, Nada!. Not a single one. At least in Valparaiso there was hope if we waited at the queue, here in Viña all of the bus companies had a notice stating there was no place for bikes till Monday. What to do? Go back to Valparaiso again? Make yourself a ball and cry till you fall asleep?. I just sat outside the bus terminal for something to happen. Suddenly a fat lad showed up from who knows where saying; "are you going to Santiago mates? I have a bus... wait, the guards are there... shhh, don't ask... shhh... I'll come back, wait here." and he left. Pirate bus to the rescue!!. Pirate bus is a term we use in Chile to describe buses that show up when the normal bus system collapses. These buses run some other route but as the drivers notice there is need for more buses, they show up at certain places, yell which route they will follow and wait for people to go to them. These buses are illegal mainly because they don't fulfill any safety regulation and in case of accident, nobody will really be responsible for the accident, belongings and the usual things that law pursues. The law in this case, didn't fit our needs, we needed transportation.

This guy had been in Lo Vasquez and realized there were lots of issues for regular buses to take the cyclists back to Santiago, he took the chance with a mate of his and drove a small bus to Viña del Mar offering an alternative to the regular buses with no space for more bikes.

After playing find and catch with the guards the lad finally showed up and yelled, follow that group!! and disappeared. Shit, we had to move fast or we would loose the place on the bus, the only one that we knew could take us to Santiago. We ran, but we lost the group, we got lost, no other cyclist was around, we collapsed and went crazy. We divided the group trying to find the guy but we were out of luck again. Where the hell did he go?, we didn't knew, we went back to the bus terminal and then Nacho showed up and said "he's back there! go back there!". We rushed and saw the small bus from the distance with a line of cyclists waiting to start putting the bikes over the bus. Salvation arrived and we managed to get on time to the place with the bikes. Some bikes fitted on the roof, but mine and two others didn't fit so we had to put them inside the bus with the rest of the people.

Reflection of the roof of our small bus with the bicycles.

The pirate bus got full of bicycles and after some jokes of how the police would catch the bus and put us all in jail for using an illegal bus we departed from Viña. We took some weird turns through downtown of Viña and realized how weird the small bus looked with all those bikes on the roof. People would open their eyes weirdly at the sight of us and the bikes. We passed right in front of the bus terminal, where a small group of 4 cyclists were clearly in despair because there were no tickets till the other day. When they saw our bus they could do nothing more than stare at us and point at the only mean of transportation there was around for going back to Santiago with bicycles. One of them opened his jaw and stared at how the small bus left the city, inside the bus everybody laughed at the misery of these poor lads.

The "armored" inside the bus.

I fell asleep a bit after leaving Viña. From time to time I would wake up and realize something was wrong with the load on the roof. Some bikes almost fell it seemed and while the bus was still moving, the fat lad would get on the roof through the hatch to try to accommodate the load. Then he would come back and assure everything was fine. Everything went well after all and we managed to get to Santiago.

Finally the bikes went out of the bus and our adventure had concluded, we just had to go back to our flats and get some rest. As last year, Lo Vasquez was an awesome chance to warm up the legs for the end of the year and for what the days shall bring for me.

Finally in Santiago.

Soon I'll depart and I needed some warming up to test the legs. They seem to be ready for what is to come so I just need to tune last details and set sail for the unknown. Sometimes I get anxious, sometimes I get scared, sometimes I don't want anything at all and just make myself a ball and roll down a hill, anxiety hits sometimes and my mind wanders through weird thoughts and expectations. Soon things will change.